When River St. Vincent's younger sister vanishes on vacation in Thailand, River refuses to wait for answers. Then the news of young women turning up dead, their faces sliced clean of skin. River flies into Southeast Asia to find her sister before she becomes the next headline. What she doesn't know is that the woman behind it all is the last person anyone would suspect.
Victoria Park was named the most beautiful woman on earth. She runs a string of exclusive modeling agencies, and beneath the glamour, she's something far more dangerous—a psychopath who curates her victims with surgical precision. Her partner, a narcissistic cosmetic surgeon, peels the skin from beautiful young faces and grafts it onto his wealthiest clients. Beauty, made to order. Youth, harvested and resold.
When River learns her sister is next in line as a donor, the countdown becomes personal. She must outrun Victoria's machine of vanity and violence before her sister's face, and both their lives, are taken for good.
Overall, this was an immensely effective and thrilling book. The whole idea of this one involving the disappearance of the sister within the jungles of Thailand and getting a chance to look into what happened to her after news of various deformed and mangled bodies being recovered comes up that sets her up as the kind of revenge-seeking sibling wanting to look into what happened before it occurs to her sister helps to give this an immensely sympathetic starting point. The arrival into this universe when she gets there and uncovers the mysterious modeling agency head who was with her sister and seems slightly of to the point of needing to look into what's caused her to act this way, causing the charge into the underworld regiment she goes through in her quest for beauty and perfection. These dueling storylines are quite enjoyable and reasonably well-handled, making the mystery about her disappearance and the inner workings of the facial reconstruction group look to keep their operation moving along.
The specifics of the operation are a bit underwhelming, but the majority of this is more concerned with the impact and long-term damage done in the pursuit of beauty and perfection. With the whole thing leading into the work between not just her but also the connection with the plastic surgeon who has started the process of cutting into victims and removing their skin for use in his own operations to help the wealthiest of the wealthy become better accepted and recognized in society, there's a wholly interesting setup here that touches on a rather topical look at what it takes to amass wealth, power, and opportunity. It's aided rather nicely by the whole idea of the search for her sister on the outskirts of this type of story, effectively utilizing the exotic Thailand locations and generally unresolved tension that takes place throughout here, which prioritizes the different culture against hers, letting this one come off incredibly well overall.
5/5
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